Jeremy Renner and Gil Birmingham in Wind River. Instead, Wind River is set in frozen Wyoming on a real-life struggling Indian reservation, where the harsh conditions are often the least of people’s problems. And to drag himself further from his comfort zone, the action has been relocated as far away as possible from the sun-scorched Mexican and Texan locales that provided such a memorable backdrop in his last two films. This time around though, Sheridan has not only written the film, he’s directed it as well. Like Sicario and Hell or High Water before it, the film concerns individuals trying to maintain rule of law in impossible circumstances, its elegiac tone pockmarked with bursts of high tension and sudden, shocking violence. Sheridan came to the Croisette for the premiere of Wind River, the third instalment of his trilogy of modern, muscular westerns. “They haven’t fed us, so I’m feeling loose, buddy,” he says by way of introduction. What are they doing here?” In fairness, some of Sheridan’s loquaciousness might have something to do with the fact that he has just spent the day doing press at the Cannes film festival on a diet of prosecco and not much else. I’m so fascinated by it, because everyone’s so goddamn pretty and happy and no one ages. “The porter in my hotel that picked up my bags, that girl was wearing fucking Gucci. He was 75 and he looked like fucking George Clooney,” he says. One minute he’ll be asking if it’s OK if he smokes, the next he’s marvelling on the eternal youth of the French.

Ask him a question and his answers tend towards the digressive: long, profane monologues that change subject mid-sentence. But he doesn’t seem to share his characters’ predisposition for keeping their thoughts to themselves. Tall, lantern-jawed and wearing a permanently pensive expression, you can understand how, he used to make a living turning up as a guest star in rugged procedural dramas like NYPD Blue and Walker, Texas Ranger, as well as a recurring role in biker drama Sons of Anarchy. All of which makes meeting Sheridan in person a disarming experience.

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